Poll: Limbaugh is most influential conservative

November 29, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) — By a wide margin, Americans consider Rush Limbaugh the nation’s most influential conservative voice.

Those are the results of a poll conducted by “60 Minutes” and Vanity Fair magazine and issued Sunday. The radio host was picked by 26 percent of those who responded, followed by Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck at 11 percent. Actual politicians — former Vice President Dick Cheney and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin — were the choice of 10 percent each.

Asked to choose from among seven presidents, Americans tapped John F. Kennedy as the one they’d like to see added to Mount Rushmore. Kennedy polled 29 percent, with Ronald Reagan second at 20 percent.

With all the talk on the news about whether Americans should have the choice of a government-run health insurance plan in any health care reform, only 26 percent of those who responded said they felt confident explaining the “public option” to someone who didn’t know about it.

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Half of Americans chose laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as a ceremony in which they’d most like to participate. That swamped the other choices: lighting the Olympic torch, tossing the coin to open a Super Bowl, starting the race at the Indianapolis 500, ringing the opening bell at the stock exchange and throwing out the first pitch at the World Series.

The random national telephone sample of 855 adults was conducted by CBS News from Nov. 6-8. The margin for error is plus or minus three percentage points.